


Cogs

by LilliputianDuckling



Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Canon Disabled Character, Canonical Character Death, Child Abuse, Childhood Trauma, Gen, Murder, implied parricide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-26
Updated: 2018-11-26
Packaged: 2019-08-29 18:24:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16749298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilliputianDuckling/pseuds/LilliputianDuckling
Summary: To one went the gift of strength. Another the gift of power.One had to make his own.All stories begin somewhere.





	Cogs

States away, a mother was discovering her son was invulnerable. The boy was helping his father build a fence when a hay bale spear attachment fell off a loader. The mother screamed when she saw the spear fall straight onto the boy’s back from the kitchen window and ran out into the yard, expecting to find her child dying in her husband’s arms. Instead, Martha found a very shaken up Jonathan Kent checking a woundless Clark for imaginary injuries, and a bent spear lying at their feet. 

They’re a middle class family, prosperous in the summer and downright poor in the winter. Farming folk. Sometimes they weren’t sure if they could pay their electric bill, but they never starved and always had clothes on their backs. Their son was an indestructible alien. They loved him more than life itself. They’d teach this boy  _ good _ and  _ bad  _ after school, at dinner, in front of the television - whenever he had a question.  _ How do you handle bullies? When should you tattle on someone? Why did that happen?  _ Ma and Pa would answer each one, and the cogs would start to turn.

 

A city away, a man and woman lost their lives. They’d been to the Monarch Theater with their son to see  _ Zorro _ . Park Row had been losing its prosperity for some time, and it was no place to be walking at night in Armani and pearls. Joe didn’t plan on killing the Waynes that night, not really. He’d never even held a gun before. But that morning, Junior and Marcia had to go hungry, and he thought  _ just this once. _ He only meant to scare them. All he wanted was the wallet. All he wanted was the necklace. But the woman screamed, and his finger twitched, and that was all it took to splatter Martha Wayne’s brains on the back alley brick. The man cried out and attacked Joe, so he shot him too. Thomas dropped to the ground and bled out, and Joe left the pearls scattered on the ground. He was never going to forget the sight for the rest of his life. Neither was the little boy left all alone. 

The police picked up Bruce Wayne from the place soon to be called Crime Alley. Officer Gordon would bundle him in a blanket and take him to his butler. Alfred would take him to therapists and psychologists, cook him meals, and make sure he got out of bed every morning. One day, Bruce Wayne was going to wake up and decide that criminals, all criminals, were cowards. A superstitious cowardly lot. And the cogs would start to turn. 

 

In Metropolis’ southside, there lived a family. Letitia had been a small town girl who married a small town man. Lionel dragged her out of Smallville and into  _ The City of Tomorrow _ to chase his big dreams. When those dreams turned to ash and the couple found themselves scraping by in Suicide Slums, Letitia turned to pills, Lionel turned to drink, and they both took it out on their children. 

Lena would burn breakfast, and Letitia would hit her. Lex would get between them, shout his mother down, and then Lionel would grab him and slam his head into the door frame until Lex was bloody for talking back. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. 

It was not the first time Lionel had beaten Lex. It wasn’t the first time Lex had thrown the first punch. It wasn’t the first time Lionel had broken his nose, or gotten him on the ground, or hit him until he couldn’t see straight. It was, however, the first time Lionel had pushed little Lena down the stairs. The first time she’d fallen at that angle. The first time she hadn’t been able to get back up. She was crying, Lex could hear her, and Letitia was shouting at her to  _ get up, get up _ , but Lena wasn’t getting up. Even as Letitia shook her, the girl still didn’t get up, blurry as the sight was to Lex bruised and bloody on the peeled and chipped laminate. 

The ambulance took Lena away. The EMTs never saw Lex; Letitia made sure of that. He could see the lights flash from his and Lena’s bedroom window, knew the story they’d tell, a story Lena was too young and scared to deny. His vision was coming back as the ambulance drove away, and when his eyes landed on his father’s car on the street, he thought about the fuel line in the engine bay. He thought about life insurance, and whether two adults might cover hospital bills. And the cogs began to turn. 

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is just a short little one-shot I wrote because I could not get this idea of Clark, Bruce, and Lex as foils for each other out of my head. I hope I've conveyed all the right details, but the way these three in particular function together just fascinates me.


End file.
